Existing online social network sites allow users to interact with other users who are online acquaintances that they rarely or never interact with in person. Users may wish to send each other a realized object (e.g., real-world tangible product or service), which requires knowledge of a physical address. A user may feel awkward asking an online acquaintance for their physical address when wishing to send a realized object. When wishing to send a surprise or anonymous realized object to an online acquaintance, a user may need to ask the online acquaintance for their physical address, thus eliminating the element of surprise or anonymity the sending user may have desired. Users are often unable to send each other a realized object because they do not have access to each other's physical addresses and are often not comfortable sharing their physical addresses with online acquaintances.
Users can share messages, pictures, and games with each other but all of these items are virtual objects being shared and presented to each other via an online arena. However, a user cannot send something more substantial such as a realized (e.g., real-world tangible product or service) object to a user without knowing their physical address.
There are some websites that involve proxy handlers, which allow certain items to be sent anonymously to certain recipients without having to disclose the recipients' physical address. However, these websites usually require users who are receiving the items to register online and set up a wish list of items they are seeking. Other users may select, purchase, and send a particular item that the user who registered their wish list may be looking forward to receiving.
Amazon.com allows users to set up certain items as part of a wish list. Users can buy an item from the wish list for the user who created the wish list. One drawback to this system is that the receiving user decides which items to place in their wish list, which can be limiting and detracts from the element of surprise.
Other proxy systems permit a user to establish a registry (similar to a wish list) and permit one user to send items to another. In these cases, the items are pre-selected and the recipient's physical address is typically known. Examples include Babiesrus.com and Hallmark.com.
Babiesrus.com implements a “Baby Registry” system where users who have newborn babies set up accounts with a list of items they would like to receive from other users (usually friends and family). Users are permitted to search the baby registries by registry number or last name and can select items from a predetermined list to send to the new parents without having to enter their physical address or other identifying information because the new parents entered this information upon registration. One drawback is that the recipient has knowledge of the fact that they will be receiving certain items. Also, in some cases, the process of looking up registries can be tedious.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,419 entitled “Data management system for automatically accessing, maintaining, propagating user data among plurality of communities, each of which contains plurality of members” (the '419 patent) describes a community membership data management system that identifies each user and their associated communities of interest. Each community has a user defined permission to access a subset of the user's data, which data is shared among some or all of the members of that community. When the user's data is updated, the update is automatically propagated to all of the identified associated communities of interest and the members of those communities who have permission to receive that data. Thus, each user of the present community membership data management system has their computerized calendar and address book system automatically populated with data, which data is continuously and automatically updated. The confidentiality and security of the user data is maintained by defining a set of permissions among the communities, members of communities and for each user to ensure that the user maintains control of the propagation of their data. Each user therefore maintains a “virtual user image” in each of the communities, where the members of that community view only one aspect of the user's personal data. The system disclosed in the '419 patent does not allow a user to send a tangible product or service to another user without prior knowledge of the recipient's physical address.